From the Bottom to the Top: Grassroots Movements and Court Victories!
This week has seen quite a few victories in the judicial landscape, as well as some big changes powered by We the People!
I gotta say, folks, I’m blown away. What started out as a notes app list of good news stories to share with my friends has turned into something pretty special. I set a goal for myself to hit 500 subscribers by the end of September, and instead I passed that after my second post! To everyone who has joined on, shared with a friend, or let me know how much this newsletter means to them, THANK YOU!
I’ve been thinking a lot about joy and what it means to me to be joyful, and this feels like a good moment to differentiate between two important experiences: joy and happiness. Both are vibrant, beautiful pieces of what it means to be human, but understanding the differences may help us move with a little more intention this week.
To me, happiness is defined by warmth and comfort. Forgetting our troubles and laughing, dancing, and smiling. It is a temporary feeling that we seek to find through our friendships, work, and hobbies. Joy, on the other hand, requires a little more intentionality. Where happiness is a reprieve from the struggles of our lives, joy is understanding the systems that are working to create those struggles and feeling satisfaction with our ability to survive in and push back against those systems.
Happiness is dancing with friends to a Chappell Roan song like nobody is watching. Joy is this weekend’s dance party of over 2,000 trans folks and allies outside of the Heritage foundation headquarters in DC.
Happiness and joy are both critical to helping us move forward into the world we want to see, and it’s been so important for me to develop a strong practice of intentionally choosing joy. My favorite personal example? Happiness, to me, is kicking my feet up on my couch with a bowl of spaghetti and watching Bob’s Burgers to lock the rest of the world firmly outside my door. Joy is staring down the barrel of a long week full of rough political news and choosing to spend an entire afternoon cooking an elaborate meal for some of my favorite friends and advocates to spend the evening in community eating and decompressing.
It would be easy to self-isolate after those long weeks, but I choose to build my community instead. I choose joy.
Going into this week’s news roundup, here are some of the victories that brought me the most joy!
Here are this week’s Good Queer News Stories!
Court Victories:
Arizona: A federal appeals court upheld a lower-court ruling that blocks Arizona from enforcing a 2022 law that bans transgender girls from playing on girls school sports teams. The case will return to the lower court for full litigation, but the appeals court indicated they thought the challengers would succeed on their equal protection claim. (9/10/24 source: ABCNews)
Idaho: A federal judge has issued a partial injunction against the state’s gender affirming care ban, reinstating access to care for incarcerated transgender people. (9/3/24 source: The advocate)
Colorado: An anti-LGBTQ+ conversion therapist working with the Alliance Defending Freedom sued to try to block the state’s ban on conversion therapy in federal court. She failed in state court, and failed again on her appeal! (9/16/24 Source: LGBTQ+Nation)
National: A4TE (Advocates for Trans Equality) has announced a class action lawsuit against insurance provider Aetna for denying coverage for gender-affirming Facial Feminization Surgery for trans women! It will take time for this to move through the litigation process, but this has the potential to make a major difference for trans folks seeking access to care in the future! (9/10/24 Source: A4TE)
Grassroots Victories:
It can be easy to feel like our wins and losses in court are totally out of our hands (and for most of us, they are), but the courts are not the only tool in our changemaking toolkit. These victories are all built by people just like us who knew they wanted to see a better world and chose to follow a path of joy and make it happen.
Boston: Boston is celebrating the opening of its first lesbian/sapphic bar in decades! Danis Queer Bar is right near the prudential center and is now open for business! Building community is an amazing way to choose joy. (9/12/24 Source: Danis Queer Bar)
National: This November, TEN states are putting reproductive rights on their ballots in citizen-led signature collecting efforts facing steep uphill battles. These states are Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Maryland, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New York, and South Dakota. Seven other states have put this issue on the ballot so far, and in each of those seven states (California, Kansas, Kentucky, Michigan, Montana, Vermont, and Ohio) voters have sided with abortion rights supporters. There are people everywhere who are choosing to build the world they want to live in! (Source: TIME)
Australia: After national outcry and pushback, the Australian government has decided to ask questions about sexual orientation and gender identity in their 2026 census, counting transgender Australians for the first time. The questions were originally included, then removed due to backlash from far-right groups, but with enough public outcry, inclusion won the day! (9/8/24 Source: The Sydney Morning Herald)
Remember, folks, the best queer news is the news we make. We all have the ability to choose joy, to choose to make a difference in our communities. Are you registered to vote? Are you getting engaged in key races in local elections?
If you’re looking for more strategies to get thoughtfully involved in politics, check out this event I’m hosting next wednesday with a dear friend and brilliant advocate: “Elections and Beyond: Navigating our Emotions through Tense Conversations”. It should be a great time! RSVP is available here.
Until next time!
Together in joy,
Ben